A lot of my CAD stuff is naval. One of the things I would like to do is print out ship hulls on a 3d printer.
I have some Rhino files of ship hulls but they are all molded surfaces (open at the top like a canoe). By that I mean they are the shape of the hull minus the plating. Is there any simple way to create a solid from such a surface by adding plating to the outside?
Hi Jim - you might be looking for OffsetSrf with Solid=Yes…?
-Pascal
That looks like it could be what I want but when I try it on a ship hull, I get
Command: _SelAll
1 polysurface added to selection.
Command: OffsetSrf
OffsetSrf failed to create a solid.
upload a sample .3dm of the surface youre working with.
drag&drop a .3dm from your computer to the reply box and it will upload.
An example
Offset a mesh instead of offsetting the polysurface.
You have a bunch of “Naked” edges that will keep this from working, but since you want to print it, clean up the naked edges and mesh it.
Hide your hull polysurface and offset the mesh using the solid option. You may need to do a little clean up of the mesh so it’s ready to print.
Use an offset distance thick enough to be relatively stable for your printer.